December 08, 2009

Top 10 sounds that wreck your sleep

Men are more likely to be woken up by the sound of a car alarm, a buzzing fly or a dripping tap than by a crying baby, according to tests measuring subconscious brain activity.

For a woman, however, a wailing infant is the sound that will most likely make her gut tighten and disrupt sleep—whether or not she is a mother.

The study, which was conducted by the British neuromarketing research firm Mindlab for a company launching a new cold and flu product, didn’t look at whether men can be conditioned to rise just as quickly as a woman after hearing a baby cry.

Instead, MindLab played the sounds for sleeping volunteers and measured the results on an electroencephalography (EEG) machine to show how regular brain activity is disturbed by them.

Still, the study did shed some interesting light on the differences between the sexes. For men, the most disruptive sound was a car alarm. The sound of a baby crying didn’t even crack the top 10.

And once men are woken up, they find it easier to get back to sleep than women, according to the study. Snoring, a pet peeve for both sexes, came in at number 4.

How about disrespectful neighbors who live above you and refuse to change their behavior in spite of numerous courteous attempts to discuss this with them? I sure do hope that more people respond to this one. Potential #1 on everyone's list.

Perhaps the person posting this article should have exercised a little more care; it would appear that this was posted without any modifications from its original source without any attribution. Clue: "Chirruping" crickets. Chirruping is a word that is rarely used in America; we would be more likely to say 'chirping'.
Julie responds: It was a British study for a product purchased in the U.K. so I left the "chirruping" in but if that's too confusing, then yes, the word we use here in America is "chirping." Sorry for any distress this caused.

Definitely street noise... jerks revving motorcycles after leaving bars at 1-4am, and the loudspeaker announcements and beeping on buses. Raindrops pinging on a window air conditioner are fairly rousing as well.

But yes, loud upstairs neighbors, who for some reason think it's okay to move furniture at 3am, or have the base all the way up, should definitely be on there as well. Guess that goes under "rowdiness".

Um, SRTM-LRM - try reading this part: "The study, which was conducted by the British neuromarketing research firm Mindlab for a company launching a new cold and flu product, didn’t look at whether men can be conditioned to rise just as quickly as a woman after hearing a baby cry." Did you note the attribution in there?

The guy who comes and picks up his friend in the mornings at 6am and lays on his horn instead of a) waiting quietly or b) getting out to knock on the door. I have heard several different neighbors yell out their windows and I'm a little surprised that no one has filed a complaint with management yet- if they have I don't know about it.